I've never before been very excited about an HD remaster. But FFX holds a special place in my heart as the last of the FF games I loved. I was 16 when it came out in 2002 in EU (which means I am 28 now) and after that I "grew out of" JRPG's and started playing KotOR and Elder Scrolls Morrowind and such. But FFX is as good as I remember! The combat especially is probably my favorite of all the FF games.

Square have done more than just upscale the game, many textures are redone from scratch it seems. For example, the texture on Wakkas bandana is so clear that it seems higher res than most games made for the PS3! Some textures on unimportant NPC's still look a bit blurry but for the most part it looks like a modern game and better than most JRPG's on the PS3. It looks better than Mugen Souls, Hyperdimension Neptunia, Agarest Generations of War etc.

I got the game on Friday when it was released here in EU and despite it being the exact same game that I played 12 years ago (it was the international version with extra content compared to the US version that was released in EU) it has me more exited than any game I've been playing lately.

Giantbomb doesn't even have a quick-look up but I think this game deserve it! Forget about that FFXIII nonsense and that Lightning Returns just came out. This is a true classic and the last of the great FF games. At least for the FF7 generation like me. Now I just want a FF7 remake, my first FF game, but that won't happen. We are more likely to see a FFXII remaster and if so I might give that game a chance again. I just tried it on PS2 but I don't care at all for the MMO like structure of the game.

Critics will say that FFX is as linear as FFXIII, But while that is true, I think the journey is a lot more fun with combat that is more than just "auto-attack" and the occational paradigm shift. And a story that is not so convoluted as in FFXIII. For lovers of FFXIII you can see the origin of the paradigm shift system in FFX-2 and its dress sphere system, changing class in the middle of battle. I've yet to play the HD version of it since I am focusing on FFX but this game is worth it for FFX alone! That you get the "not as great but still good" sequel is just a bonus.

I don't know if a remaster can become Game of The Year but I think this should be a contender of the overall game of the year and the winner of JRPG of the year (looking at what we have gotten and will get this year in JRPG's)

FFX is one of my all time favorite games, and I am really enjoying this version so far, but man...they butchered the music.

Picked this up for my new vita a few days ago. I haven't played a true final fantasy game before, but I bet I'll definitely get into this. Just have to finish Persona 4 Golden first.

I thought X was OK, but not really on par with some of the previous entries in the franchise. I really hated the loss of the world map at the time, and the weird football/soccer/whatever mini game was crap. I also played the International version. Fuck those Dark Aeons. Beating any one of them required a staggeringly stupid amount of grinding. I couldn't be arsed. I also vaguely recall absolutely raging at some Chocobo racing around balloons or something that required bewilderingly perfect timing and controlled like shit.

It did have the last good FF plot. I loved XII, but for the combat and the mostly open world exploration stuff. The plot was throwaway and the characters forgettable.

Don't get me started on the clusterfuck that was XIII's plot and its cast of bland and obnoxious fucks. At least it had some decent combat even if it did boil down to stagger with ravagers-kill with commandos over and over and over.

I could not agree with you more. I got it yesterday and even though I haven't played it for very long, I love it. The soundtrack is incredible, the storytelling is great, and just about everything else is fantastic. I just hope that enough people buy it so that Square-Enix do more HD Remasters for PS3/Vita/PS4

The remixing of the songs is so bad though. The original soundtrack was so much better.

I saw the rather dull battle system and wonky voice acting then immediately decided I didn't want to play it. I must have missed it the first time around for similar reasons.

I don't know, Square just don't do it for me. I never thought they made particularly engaging games, just cool looking CGI. They are really bad at characterisation from what I've seen of their lineup.

I actually enjoyed FF XIII, but I definitely agree with you that the linearity in X is much better. I really loved that the game managed to seem like one huge journey. That moment when you finally reach Zanarkand after going through all of the towns, visiting all of the temples and making it through that trecherous last stretch was amazing.

I'm actually excited to play X-2 again. Even though most people like to claim it's one of the worst games ever I think it has a lot of charm and some of the best gameplay and variety in the series. Hopefully my game gets here on Monday.

Seems crazy they didn't add a skip function to X's cutscenes though.

I was raging against the new music when I listened to it on youtube right after hearing the original. But I honestly don't mind it in the game, because I don't listen and compare it to the original it felt almost like it was the original music. After all the music is 90% the same, they just changed some instruments but not the melody.

I cannot however get over Yunas new face. I am starting to get used to it but I still prefer original Yuna. The new face looks too long or something. But that is my only complaint so far.

I actually think Blitzball is pretty good when you get into it and learn good abilities and level up. I actually managed to win the first blitzball game this time. The only game you ever need to play so if you don't like it you don't need to play more.

I am exited too. X-2 had interesting combat, it just lacked in story. But I'll try to platinum FFX first and that will take a loooong time.

The music is enough of a change that I'll just replay the original instead. If PS2 graphics were good enough the first couple of times, then they are gonna be good enough for one more.

Though I am still interested in giving X-2 a shot. I think that game is reliant enough of on visual flair that going for the nicer looking version would be worth it. And I don't have the same connection with the original game like I do X.

Saying that you only need "occasional" paradigm shifts isn't really giving XIII much credit, but... this isn't about XIII.

I'm also very excited to play this finally. I have never played X myself before so this will be my first time! I have listened to some of the music from both versions, too, and I think the newer stuff is better. It's like comparing MIDI to an orchestra. Which I think is actually what's going on.

@dagas: If you think XIII's combat is "auto-attack and a few paradigm changes" then you obviously know nothing of how that combat system actually works.

@xyzygy: More and newer doesn't mean better. The new compositions are rough and seem like they didn't get proper time put into them. Kinda feels like they just threw more instruments at it and made them louder and more "pop" sounding. If that's your thing, then whatever. Happy you like it. But making a comparison like midi vs orchestra is just plain false.

@demoskinos said:

I liked the combat, but that description is exactly what it is. The number of times I had to manually input a command during the course of the game is close to nil. Of course making the right paradigms is a whole other matter..

@sinusoidal: The tougher fights in the game require a much more stern command of the battle system. And you definitely don't want to be auto attacking during them. If anything its a more active battle system than Final Fantasy has ever seen. And yes,the pre-planning going into battle is just as crucial.

I have a question to pose: do you think this is many people's "last great Final Fantasy" because it was the last one Sakaguchi was involved with? He later went on to make Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, and Blue Dragon.

@tobbrobb: I wasn't aware they actually made new songs. Or do you mean that some parts of songs are missing instruments? I am only going by some comparison videos I watched and I vastly preferred the new over the old ones. But of course comparison videos can't compare every single song in the game because that'd be too ridiculously long. AND I also don't have the songs in my heart as nostalgia, so perhaps I can accept them more freely without that getting in my way.

The auto attack actually wastes time because of the commands it chooses. While it may get you by you won't actually be learning the combat system and won't be prepared for the tougher fights way late in the game and post game.

@xyzygy: Go listen to "challenge". That barely sounds like the same song. It's just more guitar, more sound, more everything. And it creates this ridiculous cacophony that completely destroys the original tune. I don't think it sounds terrible or anything, but it sure as hell isn't what I wanted out of a remaster. Same goes for most songs. Though I think the Besaid Island theme offensively misses the point of the song. It doesn't fit the area at all, while the original did perfectly.

@tobbrobb: Listened to both. For the first little while of listening to the HD version I thought it was garbage as I couldn't really understand anything and it was just that background siren sound going off constantly. Then I put headphones in and can safely say that it's better than the original (IMO). I like it because I like the awesome electro noise they have going on, the bass is way more defined, the drums actually sound like drums, and the speed up section around 2:20 is badass (that part is there in the original but it's not as defined and doesn't have the same effect at all). The original also sounds good, I just find it to be a little weaker sounding. I think it's mainly the drums that do it. The drums just sound like shit in the original. I see absolutely nothing wrong with the remake and in fact I think it's fucking awesome!!! It isn't hard to make out at all, I can hear all the parts from the original fine and hear where they improved and made changes.

I don't know the conditions under which this song is played but I can't wait to find out.

Possibly. Honestly I don't know why. It just happens to be the last FF game where the combat and story both interested me. I admit I don't understand much of either when it comes to XIII and XII is like a single player MMO. FFX is the Final Fantasy that is most like Persona in combat. Altough not quite as hard as Persona, not to mention Digital Devil Saga and tho other non-Persona SMT games.

they didn't change the story to be less stupid, did they?

I picked this up cause I never finished X on the PS2 and I wanted to play X-2. I really wish though they had fixed the lip syncing and at least some of the animations, the way characters jump from standing still to running still bugs me. I suppose it's a bit too much to ask to add in frames of animation for every character without treading into full on remake, but man it would have been great if they did. The dialogue is still as cheesy as I remember it being.

Also, I'm pretty sure Brad mentioned he was going to do a quick look for it. It'll probably be up early this week.

@animasta: If they did it wouldn't be what it is anymore. <3

That reminds me. Nanomachines, Midichlorians, PYREFLIES! Now try getting that out of your head while playing the game.

I'm pretty sure they're both using MIDI sound modules/sample libraries, they've probably only upgraded the audio gear a little in the decade between the two versions. And quite a bit has happened on that front, in the early 2000's, 128-256 MB ROM's on a regular orchestral sound module wasn't uncommon, and that usually was the majority of the orchestral sounds sharing the same ROM, with maybe a few MB per instrument. Today sound modules where every instrument is about 2-4 GB on it's own (featuring samples of many different ways to play the instrument) isn't unheard of. That said, it doesn't sound to me like they're using the most advanced stuff available for this, even though there is a slight improvement.

Pretty cool they did this, but it's to envision a 2001 game remaster, however well done, as a serious GotY candidate. 2001 was a long long time ago.

I guess DOTA 2 sort of fell in that boat, but that was kind of a special case since it was only a mod previously and had major mechanical changes. FFX HD seems like mainly aesthetic tweaks, nice ones, but just that all the same.

It's a GOTY contender because X-2 is in it, right?

@demoskinos said:

I'm not sure which tougher fights you mean since I beat the game pretty easily with auto-attack. Post-game content?

Incidentally, I'm playing through XIII-2 right now, and it's a bit of an improvement, but it still really is 99% pre-battle setting up decent paradigms, and then just auto-attacking and switching between them in a fight. The auto-attack is smart enough that you really never need choose a command manually. I'm probably halfway through the game now and have done it twice, and I didn't really need to either time. Also, I find it irksome that they don't tell you which roles each character is going to suck at. I decided I wanted the synergist role. So, I unlocked it for Serah. Turns out she only gets 4 bloody synergist buffs, none of the best ones and no more past level 30. I feel like I wasted a load of points, and a couple of crystarium expansion buffs on something totally useless, and there was no way to tell that it was going to be useless until I had blown the points. Boo!

This thread seems like as good a place as any to ask this:

As someone who's only experience with Final Fantasy as a series is playing the demo of 8 a bunch of times because I thought the summons were cool, should I play 10?

Additional things to know about me:

• Not huuuge into JRPGs, though I do enjoy a few quite a lot (Legend of Dragoon, Lost Odyssey, Persona 4...).
• I think almost everything about Final Fantasy seems stupid (especially chocobos), but again, actual exposure to the games is super limited.

Maybe the root of the question is whether or not this game has to be experienced to be understood. Is it like a Dark Souls, where I initially didn't understand it, and didn't much care for it until I really dove in head first?

If we're being honest, I guess I just want someone to nudge me over the edge to spend the $40.

FFX remains one that i had the most fun with back in its day but has one massive problem that made me care a lot less about FFX-2 and never really want to play either again. Spira is one fucking boring world. It just isn't an interesting place and two games in that world is certainly too much and even as good as everything else is in FFX, the world is enough for me to not care about it anymore.

Still, it was pretty amazing in its days and has by far my favorite combat and leveling systems of the franchise.

Excellent battle system, very fast, probably the first in the series that made using the whole part both easy and fun.

FFXII has MMO structure? I don't think so.

X is excellent but XII is truly last of the greats.

No as great as X is, it is not GOTY material. That ship sailed a long time ago.

@animasta said:

No you are!

@jjweatherman I think it's probably the best Final Fantasy to dip your toes in (this or 6), if you want to get a feel for the series. And if you were able to put up with some of the dumb stuff in the other RPG's you mentioned, then you probably won't find anything particularly egregious about FFX (except maybe Seymour's stupid hair horns). If some of the dumb outside stuff has kept you away from the games then X specifically takes itself more seriously than most other games in the series (which isn't saying much), at least there aren't any moogles (unless you count dolls). There are chocobos though. I never really stopped to think about how dumb Chocobos were, but I guess you're right. They aren't really a big part of any of the games though. But yeah, do it. Do it.

I'll be totally honest, I am willing to give Final Fantasy more slack than it deserves but there's no chance in hell an HD remake of anything - even the redone Homeworld from Gearbox - would get GOTY from me. And I'd never agree with that assessment from anybody else; these games had their day. Great to see them exposed again potentially better than before, but it's 2014 not 2001.

For what it's worth though, I still think XII was the best PlayStation Final Fantasy. Certainly in gameplay, personally in plot as well, not going to dive into this debate though.

@hunter5024: Alright, I might give it a go. I'll have to buy the physical version, though, as I'm not willing to sacrifice nearly 7(!) gigs of my Vita's storage capacity. Madness.